Vigri In The Spotlight!
March 13, 2012 at 11:46am
Taking the Spotlight this time is the wonderful Vigri, a band known for their melodic and classical elements - but also a band who has just collaborated with the legendary trance artist Chicane on some new music that promises, we are told, 'epic breakdowns and rhythms that will make you want to jump around'. And Londoners wishing to jump around to Vigri and Chicane can do so right in front of the artists themselves at Chicane's upcoming gig on April 27th at Koko, Camden Town. As for us, we've limbered up and we're ready to groove... tell us more, Vigri!
We're very excited to hear about your collaboration with Chicane, prompted by his love of your album 'Pink Boats' - tell us how this intriguing team-up came about?
Well, after hearing our album he asked if we wanted to work on a song together. Writing a song with a trance artist wasn‘t exactly what we had planned but the concept excited us and we decided to go ahead with it. Chicane is a very talented musician and working with him has been an incredible experience and heaps of fun, so I can’t say that we’ll ever regret the decision.
Was it Chicane's first visit to Iceland? Did you have a chance to show him some sights and delights or was it all work, work, work?
It was his first visit but apart from one evening dining together, it was indeed all work, work, work. Nick has an amazing drive and determination when recording; something that we hope to learn from.
And what can we expect sonically from the tracks?
The end outcome will probably be quite different from what we are used to; but hopefully people can connect with it. I think it’s safe to say that you can expect pretty epic breakdowns and rhythms that will make you want to jump around.
There's a strong seafaring theme around Vigri, we've noticed! Tell us a bit about that.
We’ve sometimes been laughing about how the sea seems to be following us wherever we go! The theme wasn’t exactly planned; it just sort of happened. The name of the band comes from an Icelandic fishing trawler; namely the last ship Hans and Bjarki’s grandfather captained. Pink Boats comes from another direction; from the distant ships painted pink by the setting sun which could be seen from where we started recording in Flatey Island.
I think the sea is simply close by the heart of Icelanders since we used to rely heavily on fishing and every family had a few sailors and fishermen. When we really think about it the sea is quite a fitting theme for us; it’s dark and raw power goes well with the feel in our music.
Will you be working with Chicane again? And do you have any other collaborations lined up? If not, who would you love to work with?
I don’t know if we’ll be working with Chicane on new songs – at least not any time soon –
but we’ll play live with him for his album launch gig, on the 27th April in London at a place called Koko. We don’t have any specific collaborations lined up at the moment, apart from few remixes from local groups.
But if we could choose someone to work with...I don’t know. Peter Gabriel, maybe. We are big fans of his music, so we probably wouldn’t say no if he wanted to work with us.
Good choice! What is next for you?
A whole lot of things. We went out to the countryside a few days ago to record a new video for our song Animals and we are already hard at work writing and recording new material. It’s going very well and we plan to publish an EP or even an LP next summer. We are also very excited about a Europe tour we will do in September.
Keep us posted please! Thanks Vigri.